Oracle has delayed the launch of a natural gas pipeline for its largest planned artificial intelligence data center in New Mexico until February 2027. Energy Transfer subsidiary Transwestern informed federal regulators that commercial operation of the Green Chile pipeline is now scheduled for February 1, 2027, pushing back its previous target of August 15, 2026, by nearly six months.
The pipeline is designed to supply fuel to Project Jupiter in Doña Ana County, where Oracle plans to host computing infrastructure for ChatGPT creator OpenAI. The timeline shift follows repeated regulatory resistance from New Mexico State Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard, who has twice blocked the proposed pipeline route over environmental concerns.
Project Jupiter is planned to feature 2.5 gigawatts of power capacity and will utilize solid oxide fuel cells supplied by Bloom Energy. Site developers Stack and BorderPlex Digital Assets previously estimated total potential investment in the project at up to $165 billion, spanning a 1,400-acre site with four main buildings. To support the site, the 27.5-kilometer Green Chile pipeline is built to transport up to 400 million cubic feet of natural gas per day, representing roughly 0.4 percent of total gas production in the continental United States.
State Land Approval Obstacles
The main obstacle to completing the pipeline is its 27.5-kilometer route across New Mexico state trust lands. Garcia Richard rejected routing agreements in March and again on July 15, citing the imbalance between commercial gains and local environmental impacts. She stated that while the infrastructure would benefit private investors and developers, it offered no significant advantages to public trust lands and placed an unacceptable strain on state natural resources. She also raised explicit objections to the project's contribution to higher emissions.
Doña Ana County sits in southern New Mexico along the United States border with Mexico. Oracle, headquartered in Austin, Texas, provides enterprise software and cloud computing infrastructure, competing with major technology firms to build out data capacity for generative artificial intelligence models developed by OpenAI. Solid oxide fuel cells generate electricity through an electrochemical reaction rather than direct fuel combustion, offering higher efficiency, but they remain reliant on a continuous supply of natural gas.
Project Schedule and Market Impact
The delay poses a critical scheduling problem for Oracle's broader expansion goals. In May, Oracle told the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that time was of the essence for the development and warned that delays could endanger the overarching objectives of Project Jupiter.
The selection of Bloom Energy fuel cells was already a compromise by Oracle, which originally planned to use gas turbines and diesel generators before pivoting to solid oxide fuel cells and later increasing its order to 2.8 gigawatts. Despite the change in power technology, the system still depends on natural gas transported by pipeline.
Following news of the pipeline delay, Oracle shares dropped by nearly 4 percent.
